Universidade de Aveiro Ano 2017
Departamento de Comunicação e Arte
JOÃO MANUEL
PEREIRA
BETTENCOURT DA
CÂMARA
A MÚSICA PARA PIANO DE FRANCISCO DE
LACERDA E A INFLUÊNCIA DE CLAUDE DEBUSSY
THE PIANO MUSIC OF FRANCISCO DE LACERDA
AND THE INFLUENCE OF CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Universidade de Aveiro Ano 2017
Departamento de Comunicação e Arte
JOÃO MANUEL
PEREIRA
BETTENCOURT DA
CÂMARA
A MÚSICA PARA PIANO DE FRANCISCO DE
LACERDA E A INFLUÊNCIA DE CLAUDE DEBUSSY
THE PIANO MUSIC OF FRANCISCO DE LACERDA
AND THE INFLUENCE OF CLAUDE DEBUSSY
Tese apresentada à Universidade de Aveiro para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Música, realizada sob a orientação científica do Doutor António José Vassalo Neves Lourenço, Professor Auxiliar do Departamento de Comunicação e Arte da Universidade de Aveiro
júri
presidente Doutor Vasile Staicu
Professor Catedrático, Universidade de Aveiro
Doutor António José Vassalo Neves Lourenço Professor Auxiliar, Universidade de Aveiro
Doutora Sofia Inês Ribeiro Lourenço da Fonseca Professora Adjunta, Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo
Doutor Michel Marie Joseph Gabriel Renaud
Professor Catedrático Aposentado, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
Doutor Fausto Manuel da Silva Neves Professor Auxiliar Convidado, Universidade de Aveiro
Doutor Francisco José Dias Santos Barbosa Monteiro Professor Coordenador, Escola Superior de Educação do Porto
palavras-chave
resumo
Música, impressionismo/simbolismo musical, piano performance, Francisco de Lacerda, Claude Debussy.
Francisco de Lacerda (1869-1934) foi um compositores mais relevantes da história da música em Portugal, dado o seu papel importante no contexto da escola impressionista deste país. No entanto, as primeiras obras de Lacerda denotam uma linguagem distinta daquela que revela nos seus últimos anos como compositor, ainda ligada a uma abordagem algo conservadora da música, que teve as suas raízes na estética de César Franck e de outros músicos românticos. O trabalho de investigação aqui apresentado procura refletir sobre os principais aspectos biográficos e artísticos que determinaram as transformações da sua linguagem musical, sobretudo no que toca à influência da obra de Claude Debussy e à sua relação pessoal com Lacerda, assim como estabelecer as características estéticas da obra de um importante compositor português. Para além de analisar aspectos da interpretação das obras para piano de Francisco de Lacerda e Claude Debussy, e com base na carreira do autor como pianista e intérprete de Debussy, esta tese termina com uma reflexão sobre a performance das obras para piano de Lacerda, no contexto histórico e estético a que pertencem, e de acordo com as características próprias da sua linguagem musical.
keywords
abstract
Music, musical impressionism/symbolism, piano performance, Francisco de Lacerda, Claude Debussy.
Francisco de Lacerda (1869-1934) was arguably one of the most relevant composers in the history of music in Portugal, having established himself as the leading figure within the impressionistic school in the country. However, Lacerda’s early works denote a distinctively different language to that of his later years, still relatively tied to a somewhat conservative approach to music, which had its roots in the aesthetics of César Franck and other romantic musicians. The research hereby presented attempts to reflect on what were the key biographical and artistic aspects that determined the transformations of his language, especially taking into account the influence of Claude Debussy’s work and his personal relationship with Lacerda, as well as establishing the aesthetical framework of an important Portuguese composer. Together with evidence on the interpretation of both Francisco de Lacerda’s and Claude Debussy’s works, and based on the author’s diversified career as a concert pianist and Debussy performer, this thesis ends with a reflexion on the performance of Lacerda’s piano works, in the historical and aesthetical context to which they belong, and according to the characteristics that are exclusive to his work.
i
Table of contents
Index of documents ... ii
Index of musical examples ... iii
Introduction ... 1
Chapter I – Francisco de Lacerda and Claude Debussy: the crossing of two musical paths ... 11
From the Azores to Lisbon ... 12
Studying in Paris ... 15
Meeting Claude Debussy ... 20
Danse du voile, Danse sacrée and Danse profane ... 25
Chapter II – A perspective of Francisco de Lacerda’s piano works ... 37
Early Romanticism and Nationalism ... 38
Turning towards impressionistic modernity ... 45
Later pianistic production: Trente-six histoires pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste ... 51
Chapter III – The influence of Debussy and the identity of Francisco de Lacerda’s piano works ... 59
Stretching and changing the use of tonality ... 61
Expanding score marking capabilities ... 40
Score features as descriptive tools ... 75
The third phase: signs of Dadaism, miniaturism and an aesthetics of simplicity... 84
Chapter IV – The performance of Francisco de Lacerda’s piano works ... 93
Music layers and spatial conception ... 95
Legato playing as an impressionistic brush-stroke ... 103
Diverse accentuation markings and keyboard attack types ... 107
Tempo, rests and general agogic in their depictive dimension ... 111
Conclusion ... 115
Bibliography ... 119
ii
Index of documents
Image 1: Francisco de Lacerda at his home in Paris ... 16 Image 2: A letter by Claude Debussy to Francisco de Lacerda of January 22 1907 ... 21 Image 3: A signed photograph of Claude Debussy dedicated to Francisco de Lacerda ... 22 Image 6: A Claude Debussy postcard to Francisco de Lacerda’s daughter Maria (1907) 30 Image 7: Another Claude Debussy postcard to Francisco de Lacerda’s daughter Maria (1907) ... 31 Image 8: The programme of a concert in which Francisco de Lacerda conducted Claude Debussy’s first nocturne of his orchestral work Nuages ... 32 Image 9: A photograph of Alfred Cortot dedicated to Francisco de Lacerda ... 34 Image 10: Front cover of Alfred Cortot’s recital programme in Teatro de São Carlos, in Lisbon, on April 11 1931, which included the performance of Claude Debussy’s
Preludes’ first book ... 34 Image 11: The autographed manuscript of Henri Duparc’s orchestral nocturne Aux
Étoiles dedicated to Francisco de Lacerda ... 35 Image 12: Francisco de Lacerda’s manuscript of what would have been his work Pour Le tombeau de Debussy ... 36 Image 18: The manuscript of Francisco de Lacerda’s Les oiseaux qui s’ent vont pour toujours (Trente-six histoires pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste)... 46 Image 29: A publishing cover of some of Francisco de Lacerda’s Trente-six histoires pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste, with an illustration drawn by the composer himself (from a 1922 number of the Contemporânea magazine). ... 55
iii
Index of musical examples
Image 4: The main theme of Francisco de Lacerda’s Danse du voile ... 26
Image 5: The opening bars of Claude Debussy’s Danse sacrée ... 28
Image 13: Francisco de Lacerda’s dedicatory remark “Aos Meus” (“To My People”) in Lusitanas – Valsas de fantasia... 40
Image 14: The opening bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s Sonatina ... 43
Image 15: The opening bars of Johannes Brahms’ Piano Sonata no. 3 ... 44
Image 16: The second theme of Francisco de Lacerda’s Sonatina ... 44
Image 17: The second theme of Frederik Chopin’s Piano Sonata no. 3’s first movement ... 45
Image 19: The use of consecutive diminished fifth’s in Francisco de Lacerda’s Au clair de lune (bars 23-25) ... 48
Image 20: A dominant-ninth section of Lacerda’s Au clair de lune (bars 30-31) ... 48
Image 21: An example of a modal cadence (Aeolian mode) in Francisco de Lacerda’s Dança lenta (bar 20) ... 49
Image 22: The opening bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s Dança lenta, with the ostinato motive in the left hand ... 49
Image 23: The Aeolian modal scale of the first and fourth sections of Francisco de Lacerda’s Dança lenta (bars 1 – 21 and 63-84) ... 50
Image 24: The Phrygian modal scale of the second section of Francisco de Lacerda’s Dança lenta (bars 22 – 37) ... 50
Image 25: The Mixolydian modal scale of the second section of Francisco de Lacerda’s Dança lenta (bars 38 – 62) ... 50
Image 26: The opening bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s Na Acrópole – Dança grega ... 49
Image 27: The opening bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s Dos minaretes de Suleiman-Djami ... 52
Image 28: The deployment of the flattened sixth degree in the lower melodic line in Francisco de Lacerda’s Dos minaretes de Suleiman-Djami (bars 19-20) ... 52
Image 30: An example of Francisco de Lacerda’s suggestive score indications in Deux Coqs, une Poule... et ce qui s’ensuit (bars 1-2) ... 56
Image 31: Another example of Francisco de Lacerda’s suggestive score indications in Deux Coqs, une Poule... et ce qui s’ensuit (bars 5-6) ... 56
iv
Image 32: Bars 9-10 of Claude Debussy's Cloches à travers les feuilles ... 64
Image 33: The final four bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s La ramier blesse ... 65
Image 34: Bars 10-12 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Dança lenta ... 66
Image 35: Bars 1-11 of Claude Debussy’s prelude La fille aux cheveus de lin ... 67
Image 36: Bars 1-2 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Litanies pour les bêtes malades ... 67
Image 37: The opening bars of Claude Debussy’s Cloches à travers les feuilles ... 68
Image 38: Bar 15 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Mon chien et la lune ... 68
Image 39: Bars 11-12 of Claude Debussy’s Cloches à travers les feuilles ... 69
Image 40: Bar 1-4 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Bruma ... 69
Image 41: Bars 1-4 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Mon chien rêve ... 70
Image 42: Bar 10 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Na fonte ... 72
Image 43: Bars 20-21 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Na fonte ... 72
Image 44: Bar 31 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Na fonte ... 72
Image 45: The opening bars of Claude Debussy’s Étude pour les octaves ... 73
Image 46: Bars 3-4 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Certain Renard ... 74
Image 47: The last three bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s Certain Renard ... 74
Image 48: Bars 19-21 of Claude Debussy’s Poissons d’or ... 75
Image 49: The ‘Mephistopheles theme’ in bar 33 of Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor (left-hand) ... 78
Image 50: Bars 1-4 of Claude Debussy’s Poissons d’or ... 79
Image 51: Bars 1-6 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Na fonte ... 80
Image 52: Bars 1-6 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Bénédiction – Dans le baptême des Chenille ... 80
Image 53: Bars 20-22 of Claude Debussy’s Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fût ... 81
Image 54: Bars 48-51 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Granadinas ... 81
Image 55: The main theme of Claude Debussy’s prelude La danse de Puck ... 82
Image 56: The opening bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s La Levrette russe ... 83
Image 57: Bars 10-14 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Deux coqs, une poule… et ce qui s’ensuit ... 88
Image 58: Bars 1-6 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Le Ramier blessé ... 90
v
Image 60: Bars 1-8 of Claude Debussy’s prelude Les sons et les parfums tournent dans
l’air du soir ... 99
Image 61: Bars 1-4 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Singes… - Pi-phi-li-rhou-ou-ak (Chant Nuptial) ... 100
Image 62: Bars 3-4 of Claude Debussy’s Cloches à travers les feuilles ... 101
Image 63: Bars 10-13 of Francisco de Lacerda’s Deux Coqs, une Poule… et ce qui s’ensuit ... 102
Image 64: Bars 1-4 of Claude Debussy’s Poissons d’or ... 105
Image 65: Bars 41-43 of Claude Debussy’s prelude Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir ... 106
Image 66: Bar 1 of Francisco de Lacerda’s La Pieuvre ... 107
Image 67: Bars 1-2 of Claude Debussy’s Cloches à travers les feuilles ... 109
Image 68: The last three bars of Francisco de Lacerda’s Certain Renard ... 111
Image 69: Bars 30-31 of Claude Debussy’s Poissons d’or ... 113
Image 70: Bar 1 of Francisco de Lacerda’s La Pieuvre ... 113
Image 71: Bars 44-45 of Claude Debussy’s Poissons d’or ... 115
Introduction
If one considers the overall musical panorama of the last one hundred and fifty years in Portugal, it would be apparently fair to conclude that the Azorean composer Francisco de Lacerda (1869-1934) would not be one of the leading figures of music history in the country. Taking into account the conservatoire programmes, score publishing and the impact of mainstream musicological research of the past few decades, he would probably fall into a second tier of Portuguese composers. This is, in one’s opinion, quite an inadequate judgement on his musical legacy, not only given what he achieved as a conductor, but also the historical significance and quality of his work as a composer.
The present study explores Francisco de Lacerda’s musical production in a somewhat homogenous manner, by focusing on his work for a single instrument (the piano), which one tries to analyse and comprehend in order to perform it according to its intrinsic characteristics and within the frame to which it historically belongs. As it becomes clearer throughout the present thesis, such homogeneity doesn’t at all exclude the differences that should not, on the other hand, be overlooked in the approach to said work. The fact that it was composed throughout Lacerda’s life, spreading itself across decades of artistic production, had to denote some considerable evolution and, thus, distinctive features. It mainly showed a clear turning point at a certain stage that would determine in a definitive way the language and style of the Portuguese composer.
The first aspect that will come across to the reader is the actual dimensions of the musical corpus that is the subject of this study, posthumously published in a single
volume (Lacerda 1997). Besides the considerable Trent-six histoires pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste, only a few other piano pieces constitute the whole of the composer’s creation for this instrument. It doesn’t however cease to be very significant of the period in which it sprung to life, thus gaining particular importance in the history of Portuguese music of the first three decades of the 20thCentury.
Although one will prepare the ground for the ultimate objective of this study by providing an outlook of Lacerda’s biography and work, its core will explore what surely is one of the most relevant aspects of his music: the influence of Claude Debussy, something that is easily perceivable in it. As one will later observe, such features as musical nationalism and miniaturism are important tendencies of his writing, but it seems no way arguable that his knowledge of Debussy’s music together with their personal contact are key to understanding the composer’s work. Would Lacerda’s piano works have come out the way they did without this significant factor? It is not a likely, even if hypothetical, conclusion. Nevertheless, one should see him as the first standard-bearer of the impressionistic school in Portugal. This is one of the primary objectives of the present work, as well as the contribution that one will try to bring about to the knowledge of the life and work of a top tier Portuguese musician.
Francisco de Lacerda’s piano works are not only plainly determined by inherent factors to the musical language itself, including the so called influences (of which Debussy’s certainly is the most relevant), but also by an extra-musical dimension. It is convenient to observe that the programmatic trend in music is generally associated with works from the romantic period, especially of such composers as Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz. Such widely known pieces as the Hungarian’s symphonic poems or Fantasia quasi sonata d’après une lecture de Dante, or Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, are taken as symptomatic of that tendency. However, if one doesn’t fall for a simplistic vision of
that way of understanding of music, couldn’t the same question be posed regarding Debussy’s works?
Impressionism in music is somewhat framed by musicologists as an approach which indirectly points towards an ulterior sense of that same extra-musical layer, not necessarily in a narrative manner as that of Liszt, but in a somehow sensorial fashion. But how is Cloches à travers les feuilles or Minstrels any less “narrativistic” than Liszt’s Fantasia quasi sonata d’aprés une lecture de Dante or Faust symphony? When performing or listening to one of these works, does Debussy seem any less suggestive, or even descriptive, than Berlioz or Liszt? This very question seems relevant enough to be presented, since it does not represent an approach to Francisco de Lacerda’s music that would be alien to its own nature. Especially with Trente-six histoires pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste, there does not seem to be any less evidence of such an extra-musical dimension than that of Debussy’s and, consequently, of Liszt’s and other predecessors’. Later in this thesis one will discuss this issue, in order to comprehend the Portuguese’s conception of music.
From another perspective, it will be necessary to emphasise Francisco de Lacerda’s ability and courage in choosing his own path as a composer. That is particularly visible when in 1902 the composer set out a clear inflexion in his route, by abandoning the initial attempts of embracing the romantic legacy, not at all disputed by his teachers at the Schola Cantorum at that time. It was that embracement of so called Impressionism at that point that set the watermark for the rest of his compositional production, thus siding with such indisputable names as Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, to a lesser extent, and Erik Satie, from another perspective, in the pursuit of a new musical expression.
If one should not set too much of an emphasis on certain models assumed by the composer, they surely cannot, however, be at all ignored. With that in mind, as with any other composer, it is obvious that not all of them have the same weight in his music. It will be gradually clearer along these lines that, as stated before, Debussy constituted one of the main beacons of Lacerda’s orientation as a composer. For this reason, and as previously mentioned, an analysis of Debussy’s influence on the Portuguese’s works will constitute a core component of this thesis, which will be illustrated by the composer’s own writings, as well as the Frenchman’s correspondence to him. By weighing those indissociable aspects, it will then contribute to safe guidelines for what the performance and interpretative standards of Francisco de Lacerda’s works for piano should be for today’s pianists. One of Portugal’s greatest composers should surely not deserve anything less!
In light of what one just alluded to, it is precisely the need of an unprecedented contribution to the general studying of a musician of Lacerda’s stature, particularly in Portugal, that pushed one towards this matter. That significant aspect of the study will focus in part on what Francisco de Lacerda wrote and achieved as a conductor regarding the French master in Portugal, France and Switzerland. This issue is in itself another significant contribution to musicological research in general, given the fact that it is academically unexplored to date. Its more general lines were referred to in José Bettencourt da Câmara’s Francisco de Lacerda, Musicien Portugais en France, but not developed in a specific way to its fullest extent1.
1After the death of Francisco de Lacerda in 1934, one might say that his work, which the composer little
seemed to try to divulge, remained almost forgotten for several decades. Only his symphonic poem Almourol (Lacerda’s own orchestration of his piano piece Ao crepúsculo – No cemitério de Eyoub) was occasionally included in programmes of Orquestra Sinfónica da Emissora Nacional. In 1969, as part of that year’s Gulbenkian Music Festival, the setting up of an exhibition and conference in Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (Lisboa) was entrusted to his fellow countryman Vitorino Nemésio, who actually had met Lacerda in his early years. From this, the idea of redacting a biography of Francisco de Lacerda by the author of
One cannot overstate that a generally unknown Portuguese composer had a significant musical and personal relationship with one of the greatest names in music history. This close connection, as well as Lacerda’s contribution as a conductor and music producer to the acknowledgment of Debussy’s work (for which he never hid his admiration), seems to be no less important than the influence that one referred to in previous lines. In other terms, it doesn’t seem possible to analyse the latter without taking into account that very aspect.
Another issue that needs to be highlighted is that the present study could never be simply entitled Claude Debussy and Francisco de Lacerda, or anything of the sort. The fact that the research is set around the academic field of musical performance demands that one has that goal in mind when setting it out. Far from being a mere musicological dissertation on the historical and stylistic relationship between the two composers, one will try to come up with consistent proposals on how to approach Francisco de Lacerda’s piano works from a pianist’s perspective. It will thus be clear to the reader that one of the main objectives will be the comprehension of the work for piano of Lacerda, and not on an evenly balanced comparison between him and another composer. With that said, it does not at all mean that one will understate the contribution that, through this thesis, will be given to the knowledge of biographical aspects of the great French composer, as well as his influence on the works of other Portuguese composers2.
Mau tempo no canal was born, although such a project ended up unaccomplished. Later on, the pianist and composer Filipe de Sousa took charge of editing Trovas, for voice and piano (Lacerda 1973), and of recording for the very first time some of the Trente-six histoires pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste. A few years after the publishing of the complete set by José Bettencourt da Câmara (Lacerda 2000), recordings of some of those pieces by Brazilian pianist José Eduardo Martins and Portuguese pianist José Bon de Sousa were released. More recently, French pianist Bruno Belthoise recorded the complete works for piano of the Azorean composer, as edited by the Portuguese musicologist, who also later published the complete works for piano (Lacerda 1997) and the complete works for voice and piano (Lacerda 1996).
2The works of other Portuguese musicians of the first half of the 20th Century were influenced by Claude
Debussy. In fact, the history of the reception of the great French composer’s work in Portugal is yet to be researched. Chronologically and in terms of relevance, one should refer to Luís de Freitas Branco (1890-1955) before any others, whose works throughout the 1910s show strong evidence of his familiarity with
Even considering that Francisco de Lacerda was not an accomplished career pianist, and although his writings on interpretative matters (mainly as a conductor) will be relevant to the issues hereby discussed, it is the composer’s piano works specifically, from a perspective of one’s career as a concert pianist, that will serve as a pillar for what is proposed in these lines. By taking into consideration the great tradition of interpreting Claude Debussy’s music, mainly through the lens of such distinct experts as Marguerite Long and Claudio Arrau, and somehow taking it into account when interpreting the works of Francisco de Lacerda, it will be possible to establish a safe approach as to how a pianist should consider performing Lacerda. The choice of sources itself for this thesis in Francisco de Lacerda’s assets is symptomatic of that (which include, for example, inedited letters from some of the great names of the international piano scene, as well as French piano makers Pleyel3).
Finally, one could not end this introduction without referring to the implicit question that seamlessly and naturally directed the research. What problems have to be considered when using such a term as “influence” by one composer on another? How feasible is it to support an answer to that question through score analysis and the reading of correspondence and other writings? Are any lessons to be taken from considering other art forms, such as, for example, painting and literature? Together with this, and given the period and artistic current that one is dealing with, the notion of musical Impressionism (or Symbolism4) and the issues that naturally come from attributing that designation to
Debussy’s music, especially his Preludes for solo piano (1918). His pupil António Fragoso (1897-1918), most likely through his master’s orientation, also received some influence of Debussy, albeit his premature death in the same year of the French composer’s passing. Later on, other Portuguese, such as Luiz Costa (1879-1960) and Cláudio Carneyro (1895-1963), would open up to the innovations of the musical language of which Claude Debussy was the first agent.
3See ‘Appendices’.
4Even considering that this thesis is not actually centered around this issue, the clarification of the matter
regarding the name of the movement to which both Claude Debussy and Francisco de Lacerda unquestionably belong is relevant. One thus recalls Stefan Jarocinski’s 1966 work Debussy –
music (which at first seems more adequate in its original context of painting and literature) will not be overlooked.
On the one hand, it cannot be ignored that not all composers are alike in this matter, that the work of two or more artists can’t have the same significance or value, and that those differences must be taken into account. On the other, the admission of the fact that such a ruling is inevitably constrained by personal choice is necessary, even when taking into consideration the obvious preoccupation with making a distinction between what is more relevant from what appears to be secondary. Only values of knowledge and scientific attitudes will enlighten whatever results come of such a study. In no way will Debussy’s superior and acknowledged relevance in music history will affect one’s judgement on the significance of Francisco de Lacerda’s work. A musicological context will be respected, especially by going back to authoritative argumentations set out in the past, by such names as Roy Howat, François Lesure and Stefan Jarocinski on Claude Debussy’s music, and José Bettencourt da Câmara on Francisco de Lacerda’s life and work.
It is nevertheless through what one scientifically adds to that legacy that this thesis will be judged. This addition to what is already known about Francisco de Lacerda, his work and his relationship with Claude Debussy, was already overt in the objectives
impressionisme et symbolisme’s main objectives, which aimed at presenting Debussy’s work mainly as a symbolist, and not an impressionist: “ […] – explain the terms ‘Impressionism’ and ‘Symbolism’, / - verify to what extent it is possible to apply the term ‘Impressionism’ to Debussy’s music, / - demonstrate how the aesthetical current in which Debussy’s artistic personality was formed (and that he impregnated in a more stable way) was ‘Symbolism’” (Jarocinski 1966, 17). One prefers to leave the question open to discussion, opting more prudently for the more generalised designation of “musical Impressionism”, without forgetting the arguments presented by those who considered more adequate to go for “Symbolism”. Actually, this is not a matter specific to this current. If the notion of ‘musical Romanticism’ is somewhat more peaceful, that of ‘musical Classicism’ or even ‘Baroque music’ have always been generating relevant questioning. In the transferring of notions and designations of plastic arts or literature to music, one should always keep in mind the nature of music as an art of sound, thus incapable of being a truly representative art. Debussy does not seem to have chosen between the Impressionism of painters and the Symbolism of poets, as he did not appear to have gone for either. Could it be the case that the French musician left us a work that, after all, depending on diverse aesthetical options, resists to being defined exclusively by one of these two terms?
presented in the very beginning of this project. The fact that the sources one is building on are almost integrally inedited constitutes considerable evidence to the novelty inherent to the contribution of this work. One will hereby present the results, by seeing them as a susceptible contribution to arriving at others in the future, from different perspectives that will accentuate distinct aspects or values and perhaps lead to varied results and conclusions.
Finally, it is relevant to present the structure of this thesis (carefully planned according to the idea that not only Claude Debussy’s influence is present in Francisco de Lacerda’s pianistic writing, but also that it’s necessary to explore that issue) as well as providing the necessary historical and biographical background. With that in mind, Chapter I will explore Lacerda’s most important biographical aspects, not only relating to his personal connection with Debussy, but also regarding his development as a musician, from his birth in the Azores Islands, to the Revue Musicale composition competition and his life in French-speaking Europe. In Chapter II, a general perspective of the Portuguese composer’s piano works will be presented, including his musical beginnings in the Azores Islands, the bulk of his production in France (especially his studies in Paris, in the Conservatoire and the Schola Cantorum) and Switzerland and his later period in mainland Portugal. A thorough analysis of Lacerda’s pianistic work’s identity and, as well as the influence of Claude Debussy will be undertaken, with the acknowledgment of the stylistic identity of the Azorean’s work and its integration in the impressionistic current, touching upon such aspects as the stretch and change of the use of tonality, non-functional diatonicism, use of modal-scales and whole-tone systems, block chords, the expansion of score marking capabilities and the employment of score features as descriptive tools. With all that established, Chapter IV will finally try establish a doctrine, so to say, on how to perform Francisco de Lacerda’s works for solo piano, taking into account the
testimonies of Debussy performers of the past, analysing some thoughts by Lacerda and providing reflexions on the artistic context surrounding these works. One calls attention to the fact that the introductory recital to the presentation of this thesis will reflect the research and results presented by this work.
Chapter I - Francisco de Lacerda and Claude Debussy:
the crossing of two musical paths
The subject-matter of this thesis makes it necessary to focus more detailedly on the cosmopolitan dimension of Francisco de Lacerda’s life and work, especially when considering his relationship with Claude-Achille Debussy, which bestows upon this aspect of his life and career a greater sense of relevance than, supposedly, the musical characteristics that might have originated from his Portuguese roots. It is unquestionable that Lacerda’s French years constitute his most remarkable period career-wise, mainly as a conductor in France and the Suisse Romande. No one could later deny the fact that he truly became musically and ideologically “French”, even with the still present nationalistic features that spray across many of his compositions (some more than others).
Although it would be feasible to come up with a sustained study on the relationship between Francisco de Lacerda and several important musicians of the time5,
it is unavoiable to realise such a task with Claude Debussy above any other name, given the importance of the relationship between the two composers and the significance of the French musician’s influence on the Portuguese, thus providing any researcher with more biographical and musical evidence than any other of their contemporaries6. With that in
5 Francisco de Lacerda was acquainted and collaborated with other great performers of his time as a
conductor, especially in French-speaking Europe. That was the case of pianists Marguerite Long, Alfred Cortot, Joaquin Nin, Raoul Pugno, Édouard Risler, Ricardo Viñes and José Iturbi, with whom he exchanged correspondence, as well as violinist Eugène Ysaye and singer Madeleine Grey (see ‘Appendices’). Besides those names, Lacerda also kept in touch with other great contemporary figures, such as Vincent d’Indy, Henri Duparc and conductors Ernest Ansermet and Georges Witkowski, who were especially close to the Portuguese musician, for their friendship and exchange of artistic support.
6 It is thus understandable that Claude Debussy’s letters to Francisco Lacerda were the first ones to be
published, among other hundreds received by the Portuguese composer. Besides those, only recently have the letters from his father (João Caetano de Sousa e Lacerda) been published (Lacerda 1988). These letters constitute yet another relevant biographical source on Francisco de Lacerda, especially the environment in
mind, and after establishing the main facts of Lacerda’s early years in the Azores Islands and mainland Portugal as a musician, it is the crossing of these two musicians in France that will constitute the bulk of this chapter.
From the Azores to Lisbon
It would certainly come as a surprise to those who are not acquainted with Francisco de Lacerda’s life and work to see someone born in one of the remotest of the Azorean islands (São Jorge), who did not have a single opportunity as a child and teenager to be exposed to any kind of high-end musical experience (such as attending a symphonic concert or a simple chamber music recital), and later arrive in Paris to successfully build one of the most accomplished musical careers that any Portuguese in history managed to consummate abroad, together with his contemporaries pianist José Viana da Mota and cellist Guilhermina Suggia. From the island, the archipelago, to the capital of the country, and from there to the City of Light, in the heart of Europe, the path of the Portuguese musician is made with tenacity and effort, but also exceptional talent.
It is in the island of São Jorge, in the Atlantic archipelago of the Azores, a set of nine islands with fewer than three-hundred thousand inhabitants at present, where Francisco Inácio da Silveira de Sousa Pereira Forjaz de Lacerda is born, in the year 1869. The underlining of such seemingly irrelevant data at first sight becomes important in order to comprehend the fact that the composer’s birth and upbringing in such a remote, even culturally raw environment did not have a restraining effect whatsoever on his development towards establishing a notable career as a conductor within the musical panorama of early 20th Century Europe, as well as the composer of a significant work in
Portuguese music history.
Having gained contact with the smallest of musical environments through his father’s and uncles’ endeavours as amateur musicians, being it in local religious and folk feasts or late-evening cultural get-togethers, where he became familiar with music by Portuguese composers whose works reached the Azores, such as João José Baldi, António José Soares, Fr. Joaquim Silvestre Serrão7, and even others, like Joseph Haydn,
as well as arrangements of 1700s Italian opera arias, the young Francisco would take his first steps in learning the piano with his father8. It was at the age of sixteen, in 1885,
already in the neighbouring island of Terceira, where he completed his secondary school studies, that Lacerda presents us with his very first composition: the mazurka Uma garrafa de cerveja. In the island’s main city of Angra do Heroísmo, the young Azorean continues his musical studies with a local composer, Pedro de Alcântara, kapellmeister of the cathedral, whose coaching he adds to the musical initiation provided by his father in São Jorge. It is two years later that he leaves the Azores bound to Porto to study medicine. Porto seems to constitute Francisco de Lacerda’s pivotal point in which the Azorean definitely abandons any other life projects that he was considering taking, such
7In the 18th Century and the first decades of the 1800s, the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, as well
as the then colony of Brazil, integrated a vast space of circulation of works produced by Portuguese composers of the time, through a system of score copying. That way, in some convents and churches in the Azores, those same works that were performed in the Royal Chapel and the Bemposta Chapel in Lisbon were played. Fr. Joaquim Silvestre Serrão, born in Setúbal in 1801, established himself in the Azores in 1841, where he had a notable career as an organist, organ-maker and composer. An uncle of Francisco de Lacerda on his father side, Tomé Gregório de Lacerda, studied organ-making with him. It is thanks to Tomé Gregório that one owes the making of organs in some Azorean churches, such as the church of Velas, in the island of São Jorge, and of church of Piedade, in the island of Pico.
8José Bettencourt da Câmara emphasises that “the young Francisco could not be presented with the most
recent products of musical evolution. Before reaching the age of twenty, Debussy had already crossed Europe all the way through to Russia, having witnessed performances of Tristan and Isolde in Vienna, for example, and the environment in which the French composer went about since his childhood allowed him to conceive his future as a musician. In a similar way, Maurice Ravel enjoyed the chance of being taught by Gabriel Fauré in Paris, thus preparing a path that pointed towards composing since early on. Without denying that the youngest child of João Caetano Pereira de Sousa e Lacerda (1829-1913) and Maria da Silveira Pereira de Sousa e Lacerda (1829-1918) had the opportunity to live a certain musical experience during his childhood, such experience was merely that of his parents’ household, in the island of São Jorge, in a remote Atlantic archipelago” (Bettencourt da Câmara 1987a).
as medicine and fine arts. It is in the northern city of Portugal that he resumes his piano studies, with António Maria Soler. Even if there is no documental indication that Soler influenced Lacerda in his decision to professionally pursue a musical career (though it does seem likely), one does know that he did advise him to leave the northern city for Lisbon to continue his piano studies with José António Vieira, to whom he recommended the young student.
As one can see in his “Guide chronologique”9, Francisco de Lacerda lived in
Lisbon between 1890 and 1895, after a few months of residing in Porto. There he marries pianist Isaura Roquette Campos Soares in 189210 and attends the Lisbon Royal
Conservatoire, to which he is nominated as a piano professor, in the following year. In the Portuguese capital, Lacerda also collaborates with his brother José de Lacerda11 in
editing the Actualidades journal and develops social relationships with Portuguese intelectuals and musicians, such as composer Augusto Machado and pianists Francisco Baía and José Viana da Mota (Bettencourt da Câmara 2015).
In 1895, however, he decides to move to Paris and on August 31st applies for a
scholarship that would allow him to pursue his studies in the French capital. After performing Beethoven’s Sonata op. 13 and going through other tests, which, according to one of the newspapers of the time, were “[…] truly remarkable, having been approved unanimously by the jury” (September 2 1895 edition of Correio Nacional), he obtained the aforementioned scholarship.
9See ‘Appendices’.
10Two children were born from this wedlock: Maria and João de Lacerda. Both gave origin to the living
descendants of the Portuguese composer.
11José de Lacerda, Francisco de Lacerda’s older brother, was another relevant figure in the family. Poet,
physician, he also developed a political career as a member of parliament in the last few years of the Portuguese monarchic regime. He passed away in Estoril in 1911, a few months after the revolt that led to the instauration of the first Portuguese republic.
Studying in Paris
It is the period initiated by this important decision on which the present chapter will focus. One could argue at first that such an approach apparently seems to overlook his early tries at composing. This could not be taken as a valid case, considering that not only no evidence came to us of any works composed in that period of time, but also (and substantially more paramount to the issue) that his early times in France are quite akin to the previous years when it comes to the compositional language employed. It is thus safe to state that Francisco de Lacerda’s development as a composer can and should be analysed from this point onwards. It wouldn’t be simplistic at all to say that his starting point in this matter coincides with the beginning of his musical studies in the Paris Conservatoire.
Late 19th Century Paris constitutes a worldwide beacon for the profound artistic revolution that started to gestate several decades earlier, in the very heart of the romantic period. With Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro and even Paul Cézanne kicking off such an important revolution, later commonly known as Impressionism, a term coined from Claude Monet’s painting “Impression, soleil levant”, France (and more specifically its capital) could be seen as the very centre of the artistic changes that definitively influenced musical development as mostly seen in the works of Debussy, Ravel and a few others (even with some of them pointing towards other directions, such as Erik Satie).
Image 1: Francisco de Lacerda at his home in Paris.
Taking into consideration Debussy’s mindset, which developed according to the aforementioned context, it is clear that the author of Pelléas et Mélisande embarked in such a movement of innovation from early on, searching for a new musical language that would break free from the formal and harmonic constraints of his more conservative contemporaries, such as Vincent d’Indy and those closer to the Germanic influence12.
12Francisco de Lacerda’s attitude torwards Richard Wagner and the wagnerianism of his time should be
precised. If on the one hand, as a composer, he aligned himself with the French school from 1902 onwards, particularly with Debussy, thus distancing himself from his master Vincent d’Indy’s germanism, his posture towards Wagner is not as adverse as that of Debussy, from the moment he overcame his juvenile wagnerian enthusiasm. It would be interesting to know if Lacerda, as a conductor, was a more or better committed interpreter of the French school than German music. That does not seem to be the case, especially considering the fact that any work to be executed requires the best commitment from the performer. Francisco de Lacerda actually left his position on Wagner clearly expressed, by assuming an intermediate position, so to say, one that was not that of the fanatical wagnerian followers of the late 19thCentury and
early 1900s, nor that of the adversaries of the work of the Bayreuth master. In a May 25 1899 letter to his father, Lacerda writes the following: “I have always found unbearable the wagnerian theory applied carelessly, and as a principle as well. Wagner, who I admire immensely, created his work, not a musical Bible, as argued by his more uncompromising supporters. The music of the future will be the music of all;
According to Déirdre Donnellon, “Debussy’s ambivalent attitude towards Wagner mirrored his desire to develop an individual musical style. This bid for artistic freedom was central do Debussy’s aims and it musically manifested itself in his reluctance to limit himself to composing within the canonical forms. […] This belief in the need to progress beyond traditional symphonic writing informed his reviews of composers past and present, including the symphonic music of Schubert, Schumann and Mendelssohn, and contemporaries such as Joseph-Guy Ropartz, André Gedalge and Théodore Dubois, which were indirect propaganda for Debussy’s own experiments in orchestral composition. He repeatedly took advantage of the opportunity to trumpet his opposition to the use of formal sonata structure and, in particular, the use of large-scale motivic development. In this regard, his review of the premiere of Georges Witkowski’s First symphony op. 14 served as a launchpad for an exposé of the modern symphony. His declarations that ‘since Beethoven the proof of the uselessness of the symphonic efforts of Schumann and Mendelssohn, for example, had been nothing more than a ‘respectful repetition of the same forms but already with less conviction’, reflect Debussy’s attempts to create a style of instrumental writing uninhibited by formal convention. Given that Witkowski was a pupil of Vincent d’Indy, it may also be regarded as an indirect challenge to d’Indy, the Schola Cantorum, and all those who had lambasted the pact of structure in Debussy’s own music” (Tresize 2003, 48-49).
September 27 1895 marks the arrival of Francisco de Lacerda in Paris13, where he
attends the Conservatoire as an external pupil, given the student age restriction policies of the institution. For the following two years, he takes part in harmony, higher composition
Art evolves parallely in a thousand differente directions and connot be restrained to the path (as broad as it might be) drawn by a single man. Thus, let the great Wagner rest in peace, certain that he was great among the greatest, but not the only one… One day, a Latin, an African, a visionary will come, shaped by a differente civilisation, who will discover new horizons and will give Art a new boost. This is how she marches on, the great Art, the HOLY MANIFESTATION OF THE HUMAN SENTIMENT…”.
and counterpoint classes with Péssard, Widor and Libert, respectively. Notwithstanding his attendance and Libert’s praising of his efforts, the language employed by Lacerda in his compositions of this period do not seem to actually reflect what could be somehow seen as a mirroring of the approach encouraged by the Conservatoire. It could be argued that the influence of such music as Chopin’s and Schumann’s, together with a sustained desire to contribute towards a Portuguese musical school, shaped the compositional language of Lacerda in this early stage, as one can see in the work of other Portuguese contemporaries, such as pianists José Viana da Mota and Alexandre Rey Colaço.
Unsatisfied with his condition as an external student in the Paris Conservatoire, Lacerda decides to attend the Schola Cantorum in 1897, which had been founded two years before by Vincent d’Indy, Alexandre Guilmant and Charles Bordes. At the Schola Cantorum, he could find a teaching establishment that focused on the canonical forms of the followers of the Germanic tradition, as well as other references of earlier periods.14It
is important to state that the musical environment of Paris of the time saw a somewhat harsh battle taking place between those who like d’Indy and Bordes fought for the revival of ancient music and the followers of the Conservatoire’s agenda, mainly based on an ‘uneventful empiricism’ influenced by such models as Donizetti and Ambroise Thomas, instead of turning towards Bach, Beethoven and the great contemporaries like Wagner and Franck (Bettencourt da Câmara 1997, 21).
14“The setting up of the Schola Cantorum, six years after the death of César Franck, must be interpreted in
the light of this situation, since the institution proved to be among the first to look both backwards and forwards in its search for a modified musical aesthetics. Though its fame to stem from its associations with d’Indisme, it should be recognised that the driving force behind the Schola lays in its concern with the polyphonic masters and its determination to reassert those choral values which other conservatories had neglected to the point of atrophy. It would be a mistake, for instance, to think that it began life as a bricks-and-mortar edifice devoted to the education of young musicians. Long before settling on that aim, the school’s founders had sought refuge in a choral society from which the first sparks of the institutional idea were struck. This society was the brain-child of Charles Bordes, whose enthusiasm for the strict contrapunctal composers of the 16th Century was one of the more heartening features of the scene at the time of Franck’s unexpected departure” (Davies 1970, 284).
It is perhaps timely to consider how much Francisco de Lacerda owes to the music institutions he attended in the French capital. The two years in the Paris Conservatoire, where he was a colleague of Maurice Ravel15, seem to have left few marks
in the Portuguese musician, whereas the Schola Cantorum can certainly be seen as relevant contributing factor to his professional path, especially as a conductor. Besides the orientation towards what would become his profession, especially thanks to the constant support of Vincent d’Indy, one could add to the contribution of the school in Francisco de Lacerda’s life his fondness of folk songs and ethnographic research, as well as his interest for the recovery of the old masters of European music. In a musical environment that was gradually becoming more divided between ‘d’indysme’ and ‘debussysme’, Claude Debussy (a fierce critic of the Schola Cantorum) would not cease his support for these orientations that would definitively mark the Portuguese musician’s profile16.
In the Schola Cantorum, which he attended from 1897 to 1902, before becoming a teacher there, Lacerda discovers his future as a conductor and is directed towards it. It is to this institution, and mainly his teacher Vincent d’Indy, who made him his assistant, that he owes the thrust towards the area of musical performance where he revealed a special aptitude from early on.17
15In one of his handwritten notes, Lacerda stated the following, regarding the Paris Conservatoire: “Classes
Pessard et Widor. Les [illegible]. Quelques condisciples (Ravel, Dupont, Pirro, [illegible]).” Francisco de Lacerda and Maurice Ravel both attended Émille Pessard’s composition class in the Paris Conservatoire. Ravel changed to Gabriel Fauré’s composition and fugue class and André Gédalge’s counterpoint class after the Portuguese musician had already left to the Schola Cantorum. One should recall that in 1898 Ravel was twenty-three years old and Lacerda twenty-nine.
16Besides what Francisco de Lacerda owed the Schola Cantorum in terms of his professional career as a
conductor, the school particularly left a mark in him in two areas in which he stood out: researching both ancient music and Portuguese folk music. Such research was especially relevant in the last six years of Lacerda’s life and it was centered on several Portuguese music archives. One should highlight the field work in different regions of the country for the collection of folk music material, which would later originate an important work of which only a small part was published: his Cancioneiro musical português.
What nevertheless shows the nature of the artist that Lacerda was is the fact that, as a composer, he found himself somewhat outside the Schola Cantorum framework and that of his master Vincent d’Indy. His early works at that time already show signs of an inflexion towards another aesthetical sense, which was already being approached in the French musical panorama by Claude Debussy. It is in the early years of the 20thCentury
(more clearly in 1902) that this turning point in the Portuguese composer’s path takes place, allowing him to move forward in his own lane as a musical creator.
Although the present chapter does not aim at an analytical perspective of Lacerda’s development as a composer, it is essential to underline this matter in order to comprehend the proceeding episode of the Revue Musicale competition and its role in the development of Francisco de Lacerda and Claude Debussy’s relationship.
Meeting Claude Debussy
The correspondence from Claude Debussy to Francisco de Lacerda dates back to the period of 1906-1908. However, according to other data, the contacts between both composers begin in 190418, in the context of that year’s Revue Musicale composition
competition, in which the Portuguese was awarded the first prize for his Danse du voile.19
government in Paris): “De plus, il est de mon devoir de vous signaller, Monsieur le Ministre, les rares aptitudes de ce jeune homme au metier de chef d’orchestre. De Lacerda est né chet d’orchestre, se je puis m’exprimer ainsi, il a fait, cette année, dans l’art de la direction de tells progress que je n’ai pas craint de lui confier la responsabilité de la classe de orchestre de l’École lorsque j’étais forcé de m’absenter et il s’est acquitté tâche à ma complète satisfaction” (Bettencourt da Câmara 1996, 24).
18One of the notes that Francisco de Lacerda wrote-down for his memoires (which he ended up not even
starting to work on) is quite significant regarding the relation between the facts that one will now point out to: “France / À l’École. Compositions (Poème symphonique avec voix). Découragement / La Revue Musicale. Concours. / La Danse du Voile. (La Danse?) / Claude Debussy / Eric Satie / “Pelléas et Mélisande” / L’ignobble Pujot. / Je rentre en moi-même.” The voice and orchestra poem that Lacerda refers to is Les morts (“on the words of Jules Richepin”), composed in Ringère in September 1902.
19 “In the jury was Claude Debussy, who many considered already to be the greatest living French
composer, and with whom Lacerda established a true friendship. To state, however, that Lacerda infinitely admired the author of Péleas et Melisande is clearly insufficient. In Lacerda, Debussy found something
Image 2: A letter by Claude Debussy to Francisco de Lacerda’s of January 22 1907.
The ideas behind the teaching establishment of the Schola Cantorum, heavily rooted in César Franck’s musical heritage, seem to have gradually built up some indifference in Lacerda, thus also contributing to the pushing of the Portuguese towards aesthetic options close to those of Debussy. The few pieces of Trente-six histories pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste composed in 1902 (Les oiseaux qui s’en vont pour toujours, for instance) point in that direction, something that is fairly evident in the harmonic language already being deployed by the composer. Nevertheless, it is necessary to refer that the previously established relationships with important names of the other side of the spectrum, such as Vincent d’Indy, Alexandre Guilmant and Charles Bordes, remained unchanged and friendly, even if news of some friction between them has arrived to this day20.
more than a friend and admirer: to Francisco de Lacerda, the French composer represented, so to say, a definitive reference in the dominium of contemporary musical creation. The considerations in Lacerda’s writings regarding Debussy always point towards a creator of universal dimension. Whereas Ravel generates in him some reluctance, at least in the given time, his adherence to Debussy’s art is undeniable.” (Bettencourt da Câmara 1997, 32).
Image 3: A signed photograph of Claude Debussy dedicated to Francisco de Lacerda.
Taking Lacerda’s Danse du voile as the central focus of an analysis on the musical aspects which the Revue Musicale competition can assist in bringing to light, and that in turn are key to understanding the beginning of Debussy and Lacerda’s relationship, it seems germane to reflect on the influence of the French composer on the orientation of the competition. The Revue Musicale set out a very precise list of compulsory features to be followed by the candidates, such as a five-beat time signature and a length of approximately four pages.
Right at a first glance, the quinary layout should raise a significant question: in a time where traditional key signatures were still being used, and with only Debussy and d’Indy in the jury (the last one being a firm advocate of classic forms of the Germanic school, as previously mentioned), couldn’t this be considered as a sign of Debussy’s interference in the competition’s orientation? It should not be forgotten that a 5/4 metric had only been very recently and still narrowly adopted at the time, and that it was Frederik Chopin, less than a century earlier, the first composer to embrace such a structure in an entire piece.21 From a slightly different angle, would it be feasible to
regard Lacerda’s Danse du voile as an important testimony of his shift towards a more modern approach and thus reinforcing the idea that this could be seen as a sign of his relationship with Debussy?
This issue seems relevant enough to point out some characteristics that markedly show the aforementioned detachment of the Portuguese composer from the Schola Cantorum and his moving towards an aesthetic frame closer to that of Debussy, already considered by many at the time as France’s musical panorama’s most relevant name: a constant use of perfect-fifth intervals (although not deployed with the same strength and obviousness of Debussy’s parallelistic writing), a denser utilisation of a multi-voicing texture and an already clearer modal feeling, compared to any of Lacerda’s previous works, such as his Sonatina for solo piano.
Even clearer is the published comment on the Revue Musicale regarding Danse du voile, for which Francisco de Lacerda was awarded the winning prize: “This composition
21This is the Larghetto of Chopin’s Piano Sonata no. 1, composed in 1828 and published in 1851. Ernest
Chausson also utilises the same 5/4 time signature in his song Le Colibri (Sept melodies, op. 2 no. 7, 1879-1882), as well as Vincent d’Indy, later on in 1907, in the second movement (Très animé) of his Sonata in B minor for solo piano. One should also not forget the 5/4 movement of Piotr I. Tchaikovsky’s Symphony no. 6 “Pathétique” (1893). Francisco de Lacerda would return to this complex quinary system in Le Sange qui songe (Trente-six histoires pour amuser les enfants d’un artiste). He also employed the 7/4 key signature in another 1822 piece of the same set: Singes…
was immediately selected ahead of the others for the qualities that the reader will soon appreciate. Firstly, the idea of the piece is clear and distinctly set in the five-beat metric; the themes present themselves as expressive, with plasticity, the proportions are just, his writing is sober and one does not ever feel any academicism. According to M. Debussy, ‘c’est de la musique aérée.’ Thus, the prize was given to this composition.” (La Revue Musicale, March 15 1904, no. 6:55-156). It should be noted that in a jury constituted by Vincent d’Indy and Claude Debussy, it was the latter’s opinion that was referred to, and not the one of his colleague. Debussy’s referring to Lacerda’s music as “musique aerée” is also curiously indicative of the French master’s mindset.
Although there is no confirmation in the available sources that the Revue Musicale competition marked the very first meeting between Francisco de Lacerda and Claude Debussy, it doesn’t impede one from taking it as an important mark in the path of the Portuguese and in his future friendship with the author of Pélleas et Mélisande22. It could
not certainly be a mere coincidence that his coming closer to the French composer’s aesthetic approach, while leaving behind what he called the “genre franco-belge-allemand” (together with the fact that the bulk of the correspondence between the two dates back to the period of 1906-1908, a mere two years later) must clearly be seen as indicative of the idea hereby presented.
22“Dans les nouvelles relations apparaît un jeune musicien portugais né aux Açores, Francisco de Lacerda.
Elève de V. d’Indy à la Schola, il y était devenu professeur. Debussy lui avait emprunter en 1904 le thème d’une pièce – la Danse du voile – primé à un concours du Figaro pour sa Danse sacrée. Au début de 1906, il le prend en amitié, le recommande à Luigini, à Albert Carré comme“un musicien solide et éprouvé qui peut rendre de réelles services dans tout ce qui regarde les choeurs, l’orchestre, etc.” Il lui confie la partition des Fêtes de Polymnie de J.-Ph. Rameau, dont Durand lui a demandé d’assurer l’édition pour les Oeuvres complètes du musicien (bien que Saint-Saëns en soit l’un des directeurs). Il voulait aussi l’aider à éditer par souscription un receuil du folklore de son pays, suggérant le tître de “Chants et danses d’un petit peuple oublié” et se proposant d’en écrire la préface.” (Lesure 1995, 282). This appears to be a confusion on the part of Ernest Ansermet, which subsequently led François Lesure to making the same mistake (i. e. the statement that the competition that ended with the awarding of the prize to Francisco de Lacerda was an initiative of the Figaro, and not the Revue Musicale). It should also be noted that, according to other sources, the relationship between Lacerda and Debussy intensified in 1906, but did not start that year.
Danse du voile, Danse sacrée and Danse profane
Having established the grounds on which Francisco de Lacerda’s musicianship profited from his personal relationship with Claude Debussy, it is now necessary to reflect on how one can detect in Debussy any signs of his affiliation with the Portuguese composer, in the latter’s life and work23. Even considering Debussy’s status as the spear
tip of France’s musical scene, the barometer of musical development in the late 19th Century, and Lacerda as a less relevant name still trying to establish his career, Debussy’s Danse sacrée and Danse profane clearly testify to the French composer’s esteem for the Portuguese.
23“Il avait aussi promis d’écrire “quelque chose pour harpe chromatique... instrument tout à fait inconnu
pour moi”, avouait-il le 28 novembre 1903. Cette harpe sans pédales avait été conçue par Gustave Lyon, directeur de la maison Pleyel, qui tentait de l’opposer à la harpe à pédales et venait d’obtenir la création d’une classe spéciale au Conservatoire de Paris. C’était pour les concours du Conservatoire de Bruxelles que Debussy avait obtenu la commande d’une oeuvre avec accompagnement d’orchestre. Il choisit de composer deux Danses, l’une sacrée, l’autre profane, en utilisant pour la première le thème d’une “Danse du voile” qu’un musicien portugais, Francesco [sic] de Lacerda, venait de publier dans la Revue musicale. Il peina en avril-mai pour livrer son manuscrit à temps à Durand. Ces Danses furent publiées presque en même temps que les trois chansons de France sur des poèmes de Charles d’Orléans et Tristan L’Hermite, qu’il dédia à M.me Bardac.” (Lesure 1995, 256-257). One of the most extensive and precise biographies of Claude Debussy, published in 1995, reduces the reference of the relationship between the French composer and Francisco de Lacerda to little more than this passage. This can be taken as another example of how mainstream musicology needs to be questioned regarding this matter, as previously mentioned. Although Lacerda had a successful career in the very centre of the European musical environment of his time, the obliteration of the relevance of his work seems to haunt his memory. One only has to compare the attention given by the French to the presence of contemporary Spanish musicians, such as Isaac Albéniz and even Joachim Nin, to that of Lacerda’s in order to confirm this lack of interest for the peripheries. It is relevant to recall that José Bettencourt da Câmara had already published works of and on Francisco de Lacerda for some years. Two years after the publishing of Debussy’s vast biography by the “Cahiers Debussy”’s director and coordinator of the international team for the French composer’s complete works edition, the same Portuguese musicologist invited François Lesure to participate in a series of initiatives on Lacerda that took place in the Azores, where the French musicologist stayed for two weeks, as well as in Paris (in the Centre Culturel Calouste Gulbenkian). It is mainly the omission of Francisco de Lacerda as one of the first performers of Debussy that deserves the most notice, as one has been stating in this thesis. Only in a small footnote does François Lesure refer to the performance of Claude Debussy’s Danse sacrée and Danse profane: “Lacerda dirige lui-même la Danse profane avec M.lle Ziélinska comme soliste em mai 1905.” (Lesure 1995, 257).
Image 4: the main theme of Francisco de Lacerda’s Danse du voile.
The two-piece set for chromatic harp (or piano24) and string orchestra composed
by Claude Debussy in 1904 denotes one relevant aspect for the thesis at hand: the articulation that available information allows to establish between this dypthic and Francisco de Lacerda’s Danse du voile. Having been approached in that year by Pleyel to write a test piece for the newly created chromatic harp (as opposed to the widely used pedal harp), Debussy responded by composing both dances25.
Is one able to detect the use of Francisco de Lacerda’s musical material from Danse du voile amidst the French composer’s distinctive and personal language? At first, it simply does not seem to be the case; no clear and complete thematic section from the
24One recalls the fact that Spain paid tribute to the memory of Claude Debussy (several of whose works
were inspired in that country), in Madrid’s Ateneo, on April 27 1918, a month after he was deceased. In this homage, his friend Manuel de Falla presented the audience with a small speech (“Profondeur de l’art de Claude Debussy”), followed by a performance by pianist Arthur Rubinstein, playing the French composer’s Danse sacrée and Danse profane, among other pieces for solo piano. De Falla himself reported the following, later on: “L’Isle joyeuse, La Cathédral, Masques, La Soirée dans Grenade... ces joyaux d’évocation sonore, qu’avec tant d’autres oeuvres l’immortel musicien nous laissa en héritage précieux, furent interprétés avec un art consommé par Arthur Rubinstein, lequel ensuite nous donna avec l’orchestre une version aussi juste que personnelle des Danses sacrée et profane” (Falla 1992, 100).
25Debussy’s first biography, by Louis Laloy, fails to refer to Danse sacrée and Danse profane in its section
on the composer’s 1904 production. It does point to the two pieces in the works’ catalogue, at the very end of the book, with both the premiere and publishing dates. This lack of reference is understandable when it comes to the relation of the diptych for chromatic harp and string orchestra and Francisco de Lacerda; however, it is far less comprehensible that the premiere of the Danses has no place in Laloy’s actual text (although it certainly is not the only case where a Debussy’s work is not included in the catalogue, which was actually supervised by Debussy himself). Regarding the process through which this list was established, Louis Laloy clarifies: “Un catalogue très complet des oeuvres a été dressé par M. G. Jean Aubry, vérifié par l’auteur même, et inséré dans le programme du concert que le Cercle de l’Art moderne a donné au Havre le 22 avril 1908. Il a suffit d’y porter les ouvrages qui ont paru par la suite, de corriger quelques erreurs de détail, toujours sur le conseil de l’auteur, et d’ajouter quelques dates” (Laloy 1909, 101). The premiere of Danse sacréé and Danse profane took place in the same year of its conclusion, in the Concerts Colonne, under Édouard Colonne’s baton, with harpist Wurmser-Delcour. Months later, in 1905, Francisco de Lacerda, at the time in charge of an Ensemble de Harpes Cromatiques course, also conducted the work.
Portuguese composer’s piece for solo piano appears to be employed in any of the instruments throughout both works. However, Ernest Ansermet’s testimony should not be overlooked as a very indicative piece of evidence otherwise. According to him, Debussy had invited Lacerda to his house and asked: “I enjoy your composition so much that I would like to use something from it. Would you allow me to do so?”. Ansermet adds that “he composed his Danse sacrée for chromatic harp and they stayed friends from that day onwards. Lacerda went for lunch at Debussy’s home every week and there he was in the company of Satie, but he would never bring up the fact that Debussy owed him the theme of his Danse sacrée” (Ansermet 1962, 459).
Francisco de Lacerda’s modesty towards his personal friendship with Debussy is in fact noteworthy26, the same modesty that unfortunately marked the Portuguese
composer’s attitude regarding his own work, which somehow remained in the shadow of his career as a conductor. In effect, it is thanks to Ernest Anserment’s writings, that one is today able to know about the aforementioned relation between his Danse du voile and Debussy’s Danse sacrée, something that can never be overstated.
26 Regarding Debussy’s friendship and generosity towards young musicians, François Lesure says the
following, referring to Francisco de Lacerda and others: “Enfin, ce que l’on n’a pas assez fait ressortir jusqu’à présent est le soutien que Debussy a souvent apporté à de jeunes musiciens. Lui, dont on a dit qu’il était peu ouvert au musiques nouvelles, a encouragé et conseillé Falla, Lacerda, Varèse, Cyril Scott et d’autres. Ce ‘manique du bonheur’ (à Poniatovski, 1893) était aussi un ‘maniaque d’affection’ (à P. Louys, 1903)” (Debussy 1993, 10) [italics by the author of the thesis]. The only letter from André Caplet to Francisco de Lacerda that is known, written in Paris on June 7 1910, when the Portuguese composer was a conductor in Montreux, also testifies to Debussy’s affection towards Lacerda: “Je suis allé voir ce matin notre ami Claude Debussy et lui ai renouvelé l’expréssion des sentiments don’t vous m’avez chargé. Il y a éte sensible. Il m’a dit sa sympatie affectueuse qu’il avait pour vous même et pour votre talent. Il espère que vous trouverez bien quelques minutes pour lui écrire les milles projets que, dit-il, vous devez avoir en tête” (see ‘Appendices’).
